Mastercoin Programmable Layer Is Spearheading the Evolution of the Bitcoin 2.0 Movement

MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jan 24, 2014) - NORTH AMERICAN BITCOIN CONFERENCE - Developers of the Master Protocol and Mastercoin (www.mastercoin.org), a programmable money layer on the Bitcoin blockchain created by J.R. Willett, today announced that Willett will be joining the Mastercoin Foundation (www.mastercoinfoundation.org) as its full-time architect. The foundation exists to help build a distributed exchange and facilitate smart property transactions for Bitcoin powered by the Master Protocol.

As chief architect, Willett will be responsible for fortifying Master Protocol's technical roadmap and keeping the protocol technically sound.

"I can promise that I will dedicate my entire professional energy to making this into a fantastic investment for everyone who believes in me and this project's vision," said Willett.

The Mastercoin Foundation is backed by just over 4,700 bitcoins (approximately $4 million USD) raised by Master Protocol and Willett in its initial sale to investors, led by David Johnston of BitAngels, in August 2013. It has branches in the United States and Israel, with others soon to come in China and the United Kingdom.

The Master Protocol enables the creation of a distributed exchange where traders can buy, sell and trade bitcoins with Mastercoins, as well as conduct other smart property transactions and activities like sales and fund transfers. The foundation supports the open-source development of applications that support the Master Protocol and does not have an operational role in peer-to-peer exchange.

The primary features of Master Protocol include:

Mastercoins (MSC), a smart currency layer on top of Bitcoin.

A decentralized exchange: the Master Protocol on the Bitcoin network itself serves as a fully functional exchange between any two currencies on the Bitcoin network. Anyone can place an order on the blockchain to trade a quantity of one currency for another, and anyone else can match the orders and have the trade complete automatically without the order poster's further involvement.

On-blockchain price feeds: publishing price data (e.g. the value of one ounce of gold in USD) for digital currencies tracking gold, silver or other precious commodities.

Stable user currencies: Mastercoins can be pegged to the value of other currencies or commodities, eliminating the rampant volatility risk, using contracts for differences (CFDs).

About Master Protocol - The Bitcoin Currency LayerMaster Protocol is a crowdfunded, Bitcoin blockchain currency layer that allows for a plethora of new digital currencies and property sales to be created through the Bitcoin blockchain. The Master Protocol removes the typical broker middleman from trading by levering Bitcoin's decentralized, trustless transaction accounting and restoring peer-to-peer exchange as the keystone element of a trade. The principles of Master Protocol were first developed in J.R. Willett's Jan. 6, 2012, white paper, The Second Bitcoin Whitepaper. To learn more about Master Protocol, please visit http://www.mastercoin.org.

About the Mastercoin FoundationThe Mastercoin Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to enable and accelerate innovation worldwide by building a technological crowd-sourcing platform for community projects, coupled with a rich financial-exchange system and liquidity layer. Members use the Master Open Source Project and Protocol precedents as benchmarks for their enforcement standards. For more information, please visit http://www.mastercoinfoundation.org.